The LitNet Forum Game Quiz o' the Week

Charlatans, pranksters, and scam meisters invade every walk of life, but they must derive special pleasure when they hatch an elaborate scheme against the pompous in our culture. There must be no greater satisfaction to say to the snooty and hoity-toity literary establishment: "You've been punk'd!" Hence, the topic of our little quiz today: literary hoaxed. Embedded therein is a trick, which undoubtedly will be evident to you after answering a couple of the questions. As one of P.T.Barnum's signs used to say, "This way to the egress" . . .and to this week's nonsense, which we like to call

The Hoaxes With the Mostest

1. Speaking of P.T. Barnum, the circus king and showman, offered an exhibit of the so-called "Cardiff Giant," an enormous fossil of a man allegedly discovered in New York State in 1889. Barnum's giant was a mere copy of the "real" thing, which in itself was a carved piece
of wood. It's remarkable that never the twain would meet. Name the monumental American author who based his short story, "A Ghost Tale," upon this elaborate hoax.

2. "The Hoax," a 2007 movie starred Richard Gere as author Clifford Irving, who claimed that he had interviewed Hughes, the reclusive movie producer and aviation manufacturer for a biography, which turned out to be a case of criminal fraud. An earlier movie, Melvin and Howard, told the story of a man who innocently, though mistakenly, claimed to have been mentioned in the billionaire's will. What was Hughes's first name?

3. In 1764, a British author named Horace released one of the first Gothic novels, The Castle of Otranto, which he claimed to have been a translation of a work created in Italy in 1529, but really was his Howard's own creation. The facts did not, however, diminish the book's
wild popularity, whereas today such disinformation may have landed an author in WALPOLE State Prison. What's the last name of this author?

4. That same year, James MacPherson, educated at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh tried to pull a fast one by stating that he had discovered an epic by the mythical poet Ossian (Oisin), but the long poem actually originated from MacPherson's quill. The work nevertheless was a source of patriotic pride for both Scotland and for which other Gaelic-speaking nation, whose heritage is the source of world-wide celebration every March 17?

5. In 1983, respected magazines such as Time and Stern paid huge amounts of money for the rights to publish The Hitler Diaries, purported to be the written thoughts of the genocidal dictator whose designs on conquering Europe led to which world war which followed World War I and occurred from 1939-1945?

6. Though F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, is by and large a serious novel, the epigraph to book was meant as a joke. The quotation of the book's flyleaf is attributed to one "Thomas Parke D'Invilliers," a fictional character from an earlier Fitzgerald work, This Side of Paradise. Who really wrote the epigraph?

7. A British poet named Thomas (1752-1770) was adept at mimicking archaic verse, so he claimed that one of his works had been discovered in an old chest of a church, along with fake documents and certificates allegedly proving the poem's authenticity. He claimed that his "Rowley" poems had been written by a 15th century English monk who had committed suicide at the age of 25. According to the Oxford Companion, the critical controversy over their questionable provenance "raged on for decades,"for decades" but despite the TON
of CHATTER, the poet ultimately was respected, notably by Keats, who dedicated Endymion to him. Who was he?

8. The pop culture goddess, Oprah, once had the wool pulled over her eyes when she featured the book by James Frey for her wildly-popular televised "book club." A subsequent revelation which showed that the book purporting to be a truthful soul-baring memoir about the author's suffering through addiction turned out to be mostly made-up tales proved embarrassing to the hostess. Although her credibility among some viewers faltered, Oprah's reputation remained in tact, while that of Frey shattered, one could say into "A Million Little. . ." (what?)

9. Speaking of TV, in 1996 the Fox Network was made a laughingstock when it broadcast an alleged "documentary," Alien Autopsy. The film was supposedly actual footage of a post-mortem exam of an extraterrestrial being who'd crashed his spaceship in Roswell in 1947, though every shot had been fake. Your question: If an alien actually landed in Roswell, and demanded, "Take me to your leader," to whom would you actually take him -- to Rupert Murdock or to Mr. Spock?

10. Speaking of spaceships, on Halloween Night, 1938 a radio drama, with simulated the format of a new program, reported that Martians had landed in New Jersey. Even though there were disclaimers throughout the program, mass hysteria developed among listeners who thought that the alien invasion had been real. The script was 100% fiction, based on an 1898 novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, updated by a "boy genius" named Orson who had the same last name with a slightly different spelling. What was it?

11. In 1944, a lonely insurance salesman by the name Ern Malley, committed suicide at the age of 25, but not before carefully leaving behind a manuscript of poetry. As it turned out, Ern Malley was a complete fabrication of two pranksters named James McAuley and Harold Stewart. The poems themselves, nevertheless were deemed "not really bad" or quite good by the poets. The fictional Ern Malley was said to have been a native of which island country where one could find equally preposterous but nonetheless real kangaroos and duck-billed platypuses, Name that country.

12. After the authentic Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, fakes and forgeries of so-called "ancient manuscripts" came out of the woodwork, among them, a fragment from the Gospel of Matthew, which Paul Coleman Norton said he had discovered in 1950. Titled "Amusing Agraphon," it was a complete fraud, which lacked, shall we say bite, because the fragment depicted Jesus assuring the Faithful that in the Afterlife, those with dental loss will have be completely restored to oral health in order that they can weep, wail and gnash their what?

13. And finally, who is buried in Grant's tomb?

Answers

1. Ask me again and I'll tell ya.
2. That's for me to know and you to find out
3. None of the above.
4. None of your beeswax.
5. Surely, you jest.
6. Don't call me Shirley.
7. Does a bear er, sit in the woods?
8. All of the above.
9. Can you serve mankind by telling funnier jokes?
10. Well, you couldn't prove it by me.
11. That's because all the toilets flush the wrong way.
12. That's the Gospel truth.
13. You must be putting me on.
Yep! APRIL FOOL!
For more info on literary hoaxes, here are some nifty sites:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/ente...ry_hoaxes.html

http://lorenrosson.blogspot.com/2005...ry-hoaxes.html

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/H...terary_Hoaxes/

GOTCHA!
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ide.../08/14/gotcha/

Dang, Auntie. And after I answered all but three of them correctly! That first story by Twain is one of my favorites!

:lol: Ok, I struggled through all that and ...:lol: Aunty, aunty, aunty. :wink5:

I don't mean to ignore National Poetry Month and certainly don't want to downplay the significance of Earth Day (tomorrow, April 22.) But I won't kid ya, folks -- verily, I gots the Fever! On the other hand, this Friday is a big day for lovers of the Bard, for April 23 is the date for his birth (in 1564) and death (1616.) The problem is -- how do I combine both baseball and Shakespeare in one quiz? Let's face it, you don't see many Danish princes covering center field; furthermore, sports during the Elizabethan Era usually involved baiting bears and some kind of "hurling" that had nothing to do with 90 mph fastballs. But way back when kids actually played outdoors on sandlots they used to ridicule each other with a sarcastic taunt that alluded to the Shakespeare. So, with these two seemingly disparate topics yoked by violence together, enters today's quiz, which we like to call:

Nice Play, Shakespeare!

1. The opening line to Shakespeare's play about an assassination in Rome sounds like an exhortation to sluggers taking too long to take their home-run trots: "Hence! Home, you idle creatures get you home." A slightly later line describes both The Fever as well as the defensive player whose position is right behind the plate: "Passion, I see, is catching." And a batter who likes to "take" rather swing at pitches might tell himself that the man on the mound "hath left you all his walks." Name the play in which these quotes appear in their original contexts.

2. What is the title of the 1952 Bernard Malamud novel about a washed-up hitter named Roy Hobbs who gets a second chance to make baseball magic with his bat named "Wonderboy?"

3. The hero of Shakespeare's greatest drama experiences deep philosophical trauma when he cries foul after his recently-widowed mother and uncle have gone well beyond first-base. Near the tragic conclusion of which play do we hear the line "A hit, a very palpable hit?"

4. The legend of Faust goes to the ballpark in an original novel by Douglass Wallop which formed the material for a hit Broadway play in the 1950s. Name this musical which features the fabulous song "Heart" ( as in ya gotta have it.)

5. The chief character in what might be Shakespeare's most emotionally powerful tragedy might even be too old for an Old Timer's Day game. Nevertheless, name the play in which we can find this famous simile: "As flies to wanton boys, so are we to the Gods. They kill us for their sport."

6. Last Sunday every Major League Player wore the same number on his uniform -- 42. This annual gesture is in honor of a man who helped change not only the history of baseball but also the social fabric of America. Who was he?

7. When a batter wonders if the air blowing into the stadium might carry the ball over to right field, he might ask his manager, "Sits the wind in that corner?" When a runner steals a base, the pitcher might complain "Flat burglary if ever was committed!" Both quotes come from the same play and of course, they weren't intended to be applied to the Grand Old Game but instead to the action of the delightful romantic comedy of whom Beatrice and Benedick eventually become a couple. What is the title?

8. Among the several books produced by a present-day American sportswriter are two outstanding collections of his baseball essays: How Life Imitates the World Series and Why Time Begins on Opening Day. Who is he? (Hint: His last name is exactly the same as the 18th century biographer of Samuel Johnson.)

9. A Mark Harris novel about the relationship between a worldly-wise pitcher and a terminally-ill catcher inspired a 1973 movie starring a young Robert De Niro. What was it?

10. Some fans are so interested in compiling or even memorizing baseball records and statistics that they become obsessed with "[t]rifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ." Other fans who like baseball but deplore the ever-escalating salaries of some of the star players might want to chide owners who only want to "Put money in thy purse." Both of these quotes come from a play about a Moor who is led astray by a green-eyed monster, not to be confused with the mighty green monster at Fenway Park. Name the play.

11. New York State native Phil Alden Robinson tapped into the spirit of Midwest farmlands with his mystical baseball novel. Name the book whose 1984 movie version contains the popular quotation, "If you build it, they will come."

12. When a team's standing is entrenched down in the cellar it's easy for a player to experience this sentiment: "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes/I all alone beweep my outcast state." This is the opening couplet of one of 154 poems that Shakespeare wrote in a special form. What do you call this kind of verse, consisting of 14 lines of rhymed iambic pentameter?

13. And finally, the lyrics and music by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer are not as old as Shakespeare, but they're 102 years old and I daresay nearly as beloved as Shakespeare's poetry. Fans often sing it during the seventh inning stretch. Name that tune!




Answers
1. Julius Caesar
2. The Natural
3. Hamlet
4. Damn Yankees
5. King Lear
6. Jackie Robinson
7. Much Ado About Nothing
8. Thomas Boswell
9. Bang the Drum Slowly
10. Othello
11. Field of Dreams
12. sonnet
13. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_stmo.shtml

1,3,5,7,10,12 I know nothing about baseball!

Oh, fantastic quiz Aunty. You did it, combined Shakespeare and baseball. I got nine correct. Not bad, but I should have gotten Much Ado About Nothing. I got correct numbers 1,2,3,5,6,10,11,12,13.

Aunty! I love your quizzes!

I got 9/13 correct - all the Shakespeare and #2 and #13 of the baseball. Can't wait for next week's!

Thank you Niamh and Virgil for taking the quiz, and Wilde woman:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wilde woman

Can't wait for next week's!

---

Maybe you or one of our stunningly perspicacious LitNutters could post the next quiz!

I'm moving next week but if i get a chance i'll try do one but i cant garuntee. :)

1,3,5,7,8,11,12,13 No too shabby

I guess I out to be really ashamed if I say that I got zero correct answers. But then my reading has been quite limited.

And well, the only Shakespeare's I have read were 'The Tempest', 'The Merchant of Venice' and just one act from 'Julius Caesar' (The one where Antonio gives his speech). And we had to read all these as there were in our literature course.

I read tempest wayyy long back...when I was just about 11.. I didn't even understand it I guess then.


Though I am quite familiar with Merchant of Venice. We enacted the court room scene for school drama. And I played Shylock (could you have guess that after looking at my avy :p).

Thanks again, Auntie. I've been away from my computer for a while, and this was a very welcome treat upon my return.

I got numbers 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13, but I have to admit that I wouldn't have gotten number 8 without your generous hint.

Thanks Pen, Nikhar, and DickZ for taking our little quiz.

I only missed 6, 7, 8 an 11! Yeah, yeah, technically I still struck out, but it feels like a win to me! :)

By the way, Auntie, I di the previous quiz, too...:skep:

Before the ink is dry on their spanking new diplomas, great multitudes of undergraduates will almost instantly find a change in the character of their junk mail -– so long solicitations for student credit cards, hello requests for donations to the alumni association. Such a milestone is marked by a highly traditional, formal ceremony in which the soon-to-be-former students have the once in a lifetime opportunity to dress up like an Oxford don. (By the bye, how is old Don lately? Is he still wearing those dorky oxfords?)

Many grads look upon the commencement ironically, but their proud parents take the custom seriously. It’s easy to spot parents in the crowd; they’re the ones frantically clicking photos before hocking their digital cameras for the scratch to make that final tuition payment. The convocations usually feature a commencement speaker (who may also be the recipient of an honorary degree on that day.) The speech is often delivered by a prestigious newsmaker or national celebrity, or at least a prominent member of the local community. The speaker usually is someone who already has a job. For a humorous(?) take on this topic, click here:

http://www.online-literature.com/for...289#post896289

Meanwhile, let’s graduate to this week’s quiz, which we like to call

As You Go Forth

1. What is the title of the 1967 Academy Award winning film directed by Mike Nichols?

2. Book learning isn’t the highest priority among everyone. For instance, “Gie me ae spark o’ Nature’s fire/That’s a’ the learning I desire” and “Leeze me on drink! It gi’es us mair/Than either school or college.” Name the poet (1759-1796) who wrote those lines.

3. John Barth’s satirical novel, Giles Goat-Boy, features a topsy-turvy educational system, but the noun referring to an item bestowed at college commencements actually derives from a Vulgar Latin word meaning “to step down.” What is this item called?

4. Close friends of E.B. White, the brilliant New Yorker essayist and children’s book author, always called him “Andy.” The nickname became attached to him because the president of the college he attended at the time was also named “White,” but with the first name of Andrew, not Elwyn. What was the name of E. B. White’s alma mater, one of the eight Ivy League colleges?

5. Which word associated with an undergraduate commencement comes from the Medieval Latin word for a squire, a young knight in service to an older, more experienced knight?

6. John Maynard Keynes (1886-1946) was arguably the most influential theorist of the twentieth century. Yet he was skeptical about education, defining it as “the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.” Nevertheless Keynes was a leading
mind in which particular discipline of knowledge?

7. The music at most college convocations is predictable. Occasionally it is the medieval song, “Gaudeamus Igitur,” featured prominently in the Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms. But which British composer created “Pomp and Circumstances,” the most famous piece of music played at graduation ceremonies?

8. What are the initials for the equivalent of the Ph.D. at law schools?

9. In 1963, the American reading public made the spicy novel, The Group, an explosive best seller. Its Vassar-educated author nevertheless was a prominent literary figure, known for her revealing autobiography, critical studies, theatrical reviews, and her tempestuous marriage to Edmund Wilson. Among her novels is The Groves of Academe, a brilliant satire of institutions of higher learning. Who was she?

10. Name the great British poet (1688-1744) who warned, “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” (The operative word is “little,” because he wasn’t referring to an all-night kegger at the frat house when he advised people to “drink deep.”)

11. Along with the usual suspects found in commencement speeches – “follow your bliss,” “give back” to the community, etc. – graduates also hear the words, “carpe diem,” which originated with the classical poet Horace. For his brilliant 1956 novella, Saul Bellow used the English translation of the phrase, which is what?

12. These days only ones who wear this kind of headgear are graduates and cartoon owls. Yet ancient kings of France supposedly wore this flat, square cap, named for the construction implement to carry a substance used by bricklayers or plasterers. What is it called?

13. And finally, name the literary giant (1835-1910) who wrote: “Training is everything. A cauliflower ain’t nothing but a cabbage with a college education.”


Congratulations and best of luck to all of our fine graduates out there!


Answers*

1. The Graduate
2. Robert Burns
3. degree
4. Cornell
5. Baccalaureate (or “bachelor,” since a squire was most likely unmarried.)
6. Economics
7. Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
8. J.D. (Jurum Doctor, “Doctor of Laws.”)
9. Mary McCarthy (1912-1989)
10. Alexander Pope
11. Seize the day
12. Mortarboard
13. Mark Twain


*NOTE: See Reply # 58 below for 3 questions that didn't make the cut.

ALSO--DON'T FORGET -- All LitNutters are welcome to write their own original, themed quizzes and post them in this thread any time!

pathetic attempt by me! 2,5,7...

Thanks, Auntie, for another creative quiz. I didn’t get that many right, so I’ll go over each of my correct answers - or the ones I’m claiming to be correct.

I got number 1 right off the bat, and told myself this was going to be easy. I quickly found out just how wrong I was when I missed numbers 2, 3, and 4. Now I probably would have gotten number 3, but our Latin teacher back then in the olden days wouldn’t let us even think about exploring Vulgar Latin because he figured he would have a hard time convincing us filthy-minded teenagers that it didn’t really mean pornographic.

I was able to get number 5, but just between you and me and the lamp-post, it was a total guess. I missed number 6, and just knew the Elgar part of number 7, so I’m taking full credit for the composer of Pomp and Circumstance.

I missed number 8, but I’m going to give myself 80% credit for saying Mary McGrory on number 9 on account of that’s very close to Mary McCarthy and they were probably from the same home town in addition to having the same initials.

I knew number 10 because I have lots of other Alexander Pope quotes that I like besides the one you cited. Other favorites of mine include: Hope springs eternal in the human breast, Man never is, but always to be blest, AND Fools rush in where angels fear to tread AND To err is human, to forgive divine.

I knew number 11 because I remembered it from Latin AND because I saw the movie Dead Poets’ Society.

I knew number 12, but I didn’t know number 13.

Thanks Niamh and Dick for playing our quiz. Couple of"outtakes"--mainly because I forgot 'em!:

1. What is the three-word phrase for the adversarial conflict between regular folks and academics in a municipality that hosts a college or university?

2. In a metaphor for a person who is so obsessed with scholarship that he or she is out of touch with the real world, we say that "He's living in a ----" (what?)

3. A famous 60s era folk trio that had a big hit
with a novelty song that included the lines:
"It's not as bad as it appears
He's got rhythm and a Ph.D."

Name the group and the song.







1. Town and Gown
2. Ivory tower
3. "I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog" by Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Hi Aunty! Love the theme this week. I got 9/13 on the quiz, though - admittedly - Alexander Pope was a wild guess for me. Got lucky! I'm kicking myself for missing #5 because I'm trying to revive my Latin. In the outtakes, I only got #2. :frown2: But now I've learned the phrase "town and gown", which definitely applies to some grad programs (which shall remain nameless :biggrin5:) that I recently visited.

Only got four, #2, #11,#12, #13 Oh Well!

This time around we're looking at famous pairs: groups of two people or places which go together like bacon and eggs – or peaches and cream, or cream cheese and bagels. (I'd say “peanut butter and jelly,” but I don't want to offend the allergic.) Gee, for some reason I've gotten hungry all of a sudden. (Maybe I should have said “gin and tonic” or “scotch and soda.”) So let’s get together and go straight to the quiz, which we like to call

Take Two

1. What is the name of the constellation containing the two stars, Castor and Pollux, as well as the astrological sign for May 21-June 20?

2. Many of us recognize the name of a pair of virtually identical, rotund schoolboys who presented “The Walrus and the Carpenter” in Through the Looking Glass. I just found out, however, that the two names weren't originally coined by Lewis Carroll but by John Byrom (1692-1763), who first gave the names to two sets of constantly-bickering but “negligibly different” musicians. What are the two names?

3. One was a horrifying sea monster; the other, a deadly whirlpool. Both ruthlessly terrorized unwary sailors venturing through the Strait of Messina near Sicily. When linked together, their names symbolize two equal dangers-- you can't avoid one without having to face the other. Who (or what) are they?

4. Two minor characters from Hamlet describe themselves thus: “On fortune’s cap we are not the very button.” Yet they were lucky for Tom Stoppard, who granted the pair a play of their very own in 1967. Who are they?

5. A worldly-wise California migrant worker named George finds himself the de facto caretaker of the lumbering, slow-witted Lennie in an acclaimed 1937 novella by John Steinbeck. What was its title?

6. Talk about a couple of towns with a bad “rep.” No, we're not talking Vegas and LA. What were the two “cities of the plain” in Genesis whose names have come to be associated with sin and depravity?

7. Two modern municipalities in the northern Midwest of the United States are squeaky clean compared to the ones in the previous question. These two are so geographically and culturally linked that they are often referred to as the “twin cities.” In fact, they share a MLB team called “The Twins.” What are their specific names?

8. Two heroes of antiquity were so devoted to each other that one was willing to substitute his own life when the other was about to be executed by a tyrant. Hence the names “Damon and Pythias” came down through history as synonyms of which virtue?

9. Who was the 17th century who wrote twin poems about the active and the thinking man– “L’Allegro and “Il Penseroso”?

10. In the summer of 1921, two Italian immigrants were found guilty of murder and robbery in a Braintree, Massachusetts court. Soon afterward a widespread clamor arose that the two had been unfairly convicted because of their unpopular political beliefs. Their plight inspired literary works by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Upton Sinclair, and most notably, Maxwell Anderson who based his acclaimed drama, Winterset, on the case. What were the names of the two innocent men whose exoneration arrived much too late, a half-century after their deaths.

11. Mark Twain made the young Edward VI switch roles with Tom Canty, a lookalike commoner. What was the title of this wildly popular novel of 1881?

12. And finally, the unlikely combination of a wisecracking comedian with a crooning heartthrob brought success to a series of seven motion pictures, beginning with The Road to Singapore in 1940 and ending in 1962 with The Road to Hong Kong. What were the names of the members of this comedy team who, “like Webster’s Dictionary,” were “Morocco-bound”?








Answers

1. Gemini
2. Tweedledum and Tweedledee
3. Scylla and Charybdis
4. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
5. Of Mice and Men
6. Sodom and Gomorrah
7. Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota
8. Friendship
9. John Milton
10. Sacco and Vanzetti
11. The Prince and the Pauper
12. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby


Sources: Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and The Reader's Encyclopedia.

Hi Auntie! Great quiz. I got 9/12. For #10, the names were on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't think of them. And I could only think of one of the Twin Cities...shame on me; I'm such a bad American.

Hello Aunty! I got 1,4,5,6,8,9, & 11 correct. I also checked some old quizzes and found them very useful as well as fun. Will look forward to more!

Didn't get 7,8 or 10.

“negligibly different” is perhaps a bit harsh, seeing as one was George Handel and the other Giovanni Bononcini.

Thank you Wilde Woman, Alien Girl and Whifflingpin
for taking the little quiz.



[QUOTE=Whifflingpin;911709

“negligibly different” is perhaps a bit harsh, seeing as one was George Handel and the other Giovanni Bononcini.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for taking the quiz! I put "neglibly different" because that's what my sources said. I'll check and make sure I punctuated it properly.

I'm "bumping" this, because I have have reason to believe one of our outstanding members of the Lit Net has a quiz to post. Please click "reply" and let 'er rip!

Nicknames Quiz

1) Civil War general from whose nickname we get the term “stonewalling”, referring to delays in accomplishing goals.
2) Nickname of the wild west outlaw whose name may or may not have been Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, or William Henry Bonney.
3) Wild Bill Hickok’s nickname had absolutely nothing to do with his real name. Give Hickok’s real first and middle names.
4) Two members of The Wild Bunch, supposedly killed in Bolivia by Army Troops were Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Give their real names, respectively.
5) Give the last name of the baseball brother duo known fondly as “Dizzy and Daffy”.
6) Who was “Little Sure Shot”?
7) Buffalo Bill was a western hero and famous showman who brought the Wild West to England and Europe. Give his complete real name.
8) Give the nickname of American criminal Charles Arthur Floyd.
9) UK serial killer who may have been James Kelly, James Maybrick, Walter Sickert, Dr Thomas Neill Cream, or John Pizer, although the world may never know whom.
10) William T. Anderson rode with Quantrill in the gory massacre at Lawrence, Kansas. Give his sanguinary nickname.
11) Frank Edwin McGraw, father of country music legend Tim McGraw, was a legend himself in baseball with this nickname.
12) Name the athlete whose self styled nickname is “Prime Time”.
13) What basketball superstar is known fondly as “The Hick from French Lick”?
14) Which President of the United States was nicknamed “Old Hickory”?
15) Name the Pulp Fiction Magazine hero who is nicknamed “The Master of Darkness”
16) Name the DC Comics character who is known as “The Fastest Man in the World”
17) George Bush, as Vice President to Ronald Regan, referred to Regan’s economic policies under this degrading nickname.
18) What is the true identity of the Marvel Comics hero Daredevil?
19) Charles E. Bolton, the last great stagecoach robber of the old West referred to himself in jesting poems left at crime scenes as whom?
20) Assisted-suicide doctor Jack Kevorkian is know by this grim nickname.
Bonus: Quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, left halfback Jim Crowley, right halfback Don Miller and fullback Elmer Layden are known as:


1: Thomas Stonewall Jackson 2: Billy the Kid 3: James Butler 4: Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh 5: Dean 6: Annie Oakley 7: William Fredrick Cody 8: Pretty Boy 9: Jack the Ripper 10: Bloody Bill 11: Tug McGraw 12: Deion Sanders 13: Larry Bird 14: Andrew Jackson 15: The Shadow 16: The Flash 17: Voodoo Economics 18: Matthew Murdock 19: Black Bart 20: Doctor Death BONUS: The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame

Thanks, Pendragon, for a great quiz. I’ve really missed seeing these lately. I’ve tried to write a few myself but they didn’t go over very well.

I got numbers 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and the bonus. For number 7, I have to admit that I didn’t know Cody's middle name, but I’m taking credit anyway for getting the rest of it.

Thanks again for stepping up and composing an interesting one. I know from personal experience that it's not very easy.

Nice quiz Pen. I only got nine correct: 1, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17, 20. I should have known a couple of them though.

Minor correct to your number 17. Bush didn't make the "voodoo econonics" phrase as vice president. He made it while running against Reagan in the primary.

Thanks for the Take Two quiz, Auntie. I didn't notice it when it first came out, as I'm really getting wrapped up in the World Cup. But I'm sure glad I eventually found it.

I got all of them except for the John Milton question. You're very creative, as always.

This time of year, when the air’s as heavy as a Nietzsche tome and it feels like every one of your internal organs is melting, it’s really irritating when somebody thinks it’s the height of wit to ask, “Hot enough for you?” What the h- does that mean? Well, some people actually love the summer, but your average sun-worshiper on the beach never looks as if he or she is having a good time -- squinting, frowning, or trying discreetly to shake the stray bits of sand out of his or her bathing suit. Sunshine is good – don’t get me wrong– without it we’d all starve, if we hadn’t already been frozen to death.

Yet even a genius as savvy as the Bard himself looked a little askance at Old Sol. The speaker of the sonnets was glad that his mistress’s eyes were nothing like the sun. When questioned about his gloomy state, Hamlet confesses, “I am too much in the sun” (I, ii), which, according to Brewer’s, means he has “lost God’s blessing.” A similar observation of this “far inferior state” occurs in King Lear (II,i): “Out of heaven’s benediction comest to the warm sun.”

Hence to the air-conditioned comfort of this week’s quiz in which the questions and answers all pertain to the season in which the northern hemisphere is currently experiencing. Wipe the sweat off your brow, take a sip of an ice-cold beverage, and dive into the quiz which we – so originally! -- call

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

1. Folks have sung this seasonal hit every year since it was first “recorded” in 1250 by John Fornset, a monk at the Reading Abbey. The second line of the ditty is “Lhude sing cuccu!” What’s the famous first line?

2. The script for the 1957 movie The Long, Hot Summer was stitched together from bits and pieces of works by which major American author?

3. “ What is the title of the Gershwin folk opera which features “Summertime” as its signature aria?

4. According to an old saying, what is the crop that typically is “knee-high by the Fourth of July?”

5. The noted historian Barbara Tuchman won the first of her three Pulitzer Prizes in 1962. Name this seminal work recounting the run-up to, the execution, and the far-reaching consequences of World War I.

6. Although the play’s title refers to a winter event, Twelfth Night includes a reference to summer (III, iv) when Olivia tells Malvolio that he’s showing symptoms similar to those found in dogs, thought to have been highly susceptible to rabies at this particular time of year. What is the mental condition to which Olivia refers?

7. A child’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is the premise of “All Summer in a Day,” a short story written by which American science fiction and fantasy writer (b. 1920)?

8. For what or whom are the months of July and August named?

9. For centuries, fishing has been a favorite recreational activity, especially in summer. An early authority on the subject remarks that “as for winter fly fishing, it is as useful as an almanac out of date.” Not only did he know every angle of his subject, he evidently lived a long time-- (1593-1683), perhaps as a happy result of his favorite leisure activity. What was the expert’s name and what was the title of his famous guidebook?

10. “He had been for eight years upon a project for extracting sun-beams out of cucumbers which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers.” This satiric description appears in The Voyage of Laputa, a section of a larger, extraordinarily famous work. Who was the literary giant who wrote it?

11. Name the major American playwright for whom summer was a recurring setting including Summer and Smoke (1947), Suddenly Last Summer (1958), and Clothes for a Summer Hotel, a 1980 work about F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

12. Who was the American humorist and entertainer (1879-1935) who once quipped: “I never expected to see the day when girls would get sunburned in the places they do today”?

13. And finally, who was the significant British poet (1837-1909) who, in addition to creating poems such as The Garden of Proserpine, asked the urgent question: “What will thou do when the summer is shed?”







Answers

1. “Sumer is icumen in” (“Cuckoo Song”)
2. William Faulkner
3. Porgy and Bess
4. corn
5. The Guns of August
6. Midsummer Madness
7. Ray Bradbury
8. Roman rulers
9. Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler
10. Jonathan Swift
11. Tennessee Williams
12. Will Rogers
13. Swinburne

Bonus! Bonus! Added 7/16/10, 5:05 pm EDT

This time of year, "There ain't no cure" for what?

Bonus Answer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItOCOeskC20

Got 1. 3. 4.7. 8.and 10.
Rather okay concerning the heat, I guess.

Thanks for the quiz, Auntie. I also hate it when someone asks if it’s hot enough for me. I would like to say I would prefer it to be a few degrees hotter, but I haven’t yet been able to muster the courage to actually say that.

Anyway, I got numbers 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and the bonus question. I had to get #5, since I recently bought the Franklin Library leather-bound version of The Guns of August, which is a fantastic book. I'm also old enough to remember Summertime Blues when it was sung for the first time, which is a claim that most of the members of this forum can't make.

Hi Auntie,

Thanks for the quiz. I only got 4/13 this week: #3, 4, 8, and 10. Dismal. As a medievalist, I'm ashamed to have missed #1, and I really should've gotten Swinburne as well. Well, better luck next week.

Got more than I thought I would, but it's amazing how much you can forget between being 16 and 55. Is the brain just going through natural processes, or was all that blurb about "every drink kills x million brain cells" really true? Thanks for the cerebral gymnastics!!

1,4,6,10. Very poor job there, Pen!

It’s that proud time of year again for apple-cheeked kids to show the 4-H projects they've worked on all summer long, for farm wives to display their meticulous yet lovingly wrought efforts in canning, baking, and flower arranging, and for their husbands to flex their skill on the midway in order to win a stuffed animal or a Kewpie doll which invariably costs much less than what they dropped on the games. The harvest has begun, and with it comes all manner of county fairs, homespun craft bazaars, and traveling carnivals, from the wholesome to the seedy. You'll find occasionally tasty– if not especially nutritious- fare such as corn dogs, cotton candy, fried dough, all of which the bold and the foolhardy may risk losing entirely on the amusement park rides. Don't worry about being hoodwinked or flimflammed or bamboozled by some flashy city slicker. This quiz is multiple choice for your enjoyment (and my aggravation!)

So – Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step right up for today’s dubious attraction, which we like to call

Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair

The Choices
a. James Joyce
b. John Barth
c. Lawrence Ferlinghetti
d. Simple Simon
e. E. B. White
f. State Fair
g. Thomas Hardy
h. E. L. Doctorow
i. Ray Bradbury
j. Bartholomew Fair
k. Franz Kafka
l. 1903 World’s Fair
m. Vanity Fair

The Questions
1. What is the title of Ben Jonson’s 1614 comedy featuring archetypal characters named Littlewit, Busy, and Justice Adam Overdo?

2. Known for writing expansive picaresque novels such as Giles Goat-Boy and The Sot-Weed Factor, who is the contemporary writer of a short story collection titled Lost in the Funhouse?

3. Name the historical cultural event which concludes the 1944 film, Meet Me in St. Louis.

4. Who is the poet, publisher, and San Francisco bookstore founder whose most famous work is A Coney Island of the Mind?

5. Rodgers and Hammerstein, the team that created popular musicals such as Carousel, provided the source material for three movies with the same title, two great ones in 1933 and in 1945, and one considerably less so in 1962. What was the title?

6. A down-at-the heels farmhand gets so stinkin’ drunk at a fair that he literally sells his wife and baby. This the opening of the novel, The Mayor of Casterbridge. Who wrote it?

7. Name the 20th century literary giant who wrote the short story, “Araby,” named after a traveling bazaar that symbolizes a young man agonizing over his first love.

8. Which author wrote “The Hunger Artist,” about a man who, like a sideshow freak, starves himself for the entertainment of audiences?

9. Who is the present-day author of novels set against a cultural and historical backdrop, such as Ragtime and World’s Fair?

10. Tattoos are commonplace, even ubiquitous these days, but in previous eras a “tattooed lady” was a carnival attraction. Then, as now, the body art was one-dimensional, nothing fantastic like that of “The Illustrated Man,” written by which American short story writer?

11. Who wrote Charlotte’s Web, featuring a spider with literary leanings and a “famous” pig destined to win a prize at the county fair – or perhaps suffer a far worse fate?

12. What is the title of the 1848 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray?

And finally–
13. Who met a pie man going to the fair?

The Answers
1. j
2. b
3. l
4. c
5. f
6. g
7. a
8. k
9. h
10. i
11. e
12. m
13. d

Ooh, you're back with quizes Aunty. I got them all correct! :D It's a little easier having the answers in front of one, needing only to choose the right one.

Thanks, Auntie. I’ve really missed these quizzes so it’s great to see their return. I got numbers 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, and 13, but I have to admit that number 1 was a guess.

Thanks, Virgil (long time no see!) and DickZ.

Just a clarification about Question # 5:

I misinterpreted the source material about the State Fair movies. There was indeed a film of that name made in 1933, but it wasn't a musical and thus the composer and lyricist had nothing to do with it. They did, however, contribute the songs used in both the 1945 and 1962 films.

Brings up (not "begs") the question: which of Richard Rodgers's most prominent lyricists do you prefer: Hart or Hammerstein? Although the latter showed that he did have an "edge," notably in South Pacific, most of the projects with which Mr. Hammerstein was involved tended to be somewhat saccharine, e. g. The Sound of
Music. Yet Rodgers's earlier collaborator, Lorenz Hart, wrote edgy songs full of wit, despite or maybe because of his troubled life.

But asking which lyricist you prefer is no doubt moot. Reminds me of a story about NYC's mayor Mike Bloomberg.

For an interleague "subway series" a few years ago, reporters asked Bloomberg which NY team he was rooting for, the Yankees or the Mets. Apparently Bloomberg tried to think of a diplomatic answer that wouldn't alienate any New York fan. "I'm for the team that has Matsui on the roster." Both teams at the time had a player whose last name was Matsui -- the infielder Kaz on the Mets and DH aand occasional outfielder Hideki on the Yanks.